School named after Gore built on toxic dirt

An environmentally-conscious Los Angeles school named after an climate change-fighting former vice president has run into some eco-unfriendly controversy ahead of its opening next week.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the $75.5 million Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences — named after the late author Rachel Carson and Al Gore — was built on toxic land. Over the Labor Day weekend crews hauled away massive amounts of dirt (possibly contaminated by underground storage tanks), replacing it with good old-fashioned uncontaminated dirt in a cleanup that cost $4 million.

“[The school district] can pull all the soil out that they like but unless they identify all sources of contamination there is going to be an ongoing issue.”

LA Unified School District officials insist the site is safe and say they will monitor and test the area. They did not specify how often the testing will be done.

One thing’s for sure, Gore has not commented on the matter. He was apparently on vacation and unreachable, reports the Times. Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics said:

“I’d like to hear from Mr. Gore. I’d like to hear about what he thinks about sending children to a school that’s been built on contaminated soil. Silence is a form of condoning something like that.”